New Marathon permits reduce sulfur emissions

The Marathon oil refinery in southwest Detroit had a small fire this morning.

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Detroit’s Marathon refinery will have to cut emissions, under new permits issued this week by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.

Marathon needs to meet new federal requirements for low-sulfur gasoline.

Because it needed to remove that sulfur, Marathon initially asked to increase its sulfur dioxide emissions, in a heavily-industrial area already considered the state’s most polluted ZIP code.

But after a fierce public backlash, Marathon and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality found ways for the company to actually reduce those emissions.

“They heard what the citizens had to say, and they worked with us to further reduce emissions at the facility,” said Lynn Fiedler, head of the MDEQ’s air quality division.

Fiedler says these were offered as voluntary measures, but “we have made them part of the permit. So they are enforceable, and things that we will be doing inspections on, and they will be required to monitor and do reports on.”

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A lawsuit was filed Monday in federal court, claiming air contaminants, noise and odor from Marathon's refinery in southwest Detroit is causing a continuous nuisance that's harming people who live nearby.

The lawsuit is seeking class action status, damages of more than $5 million for area residents, and a court order to stop Marathon from releasing contaminants into the air and to cut noise and odor.

The Marathon Petroleum refinery in southwest Detroit is no stranger to controversy. But its request to increase sulfur dioxide emissions has sparked a major backlash. The company has done a huge expansion of its southwest Detroit refinery in the past few years.